but fema warned most of us don't know how to use them. do you? abc's elisabeth leamy is our consumer watchdog. >> reporter: this woman is trying to put out a house fire and she's losing. lucky for her this isn't her home. >> oh, heart pounding a little? >> a little bit! >> reporter: we told a group of homeowners we were doing a story about family fire drills, but it was a trick. really, we wanted to see if they could work a fire extinguisher. >> there's a fire! now! here, take the fire extinguisher! go! go! go! >> reporter: firefighters say many homeowners have fire extinguishers but most don't know how to use them. remember kerry braun? look, it takes her an agonizing 10 seconds to pull the pin on hers. >> i always thought it would be easy to use and it's not as easy as you think. >> reporter: vincette anello has a fire extinguisher at home, but was too far away from the flames for this one to do any good. >> so what did you learn? >> to just get out. get out. >> the fire doubles every 60 seconds, so the longer it's delayed, the worse the fire i